Country Living Series

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Peach ice cream

We had a bit of an Indian summer over the last couple of weeks, with temps well into the 80s (that has since stopped and we're cooling down). Despite my aversion to heat, I haven't minded this last gasp of warmth since we're still hoping all the green tomatoes in the garden will have time to ripen.

The weather gave me an excuse to try something I've wanted to try for some time: making peach ice cream.

While I've often made what I call Utterly Artificial Ice Cream (no real ingredients!), I haven't been overly impressed with the custard ice cream recipes out there because they taste far too egg-y.

But a neighbor brought a creamy treat of peach ice cream to our neighborhood potluck over the summer, and it was to-die-for delicious. Peaches are my favorite fruit anyway, so I'm always in the market for peach anything. Our neighbor kindly provided me with the recipe.

The ingredients are simple: milk, sugar, half-and-half, cream, a touch of vanilla and salt, and a puréed fruit (strawberries would also be excellent).

Here I'm scalding the milk.

While the milk was heating, I soaked peach purée in hot water to defrost.

Once the milk is scalded, I removed it from the heat and stirred in the sugar to let it dissolve. Then I stirred in the cream and half-and-half.

Once all the ingredients are added together (including the purée), it needs to be chilled in the fridge for half an hour or so.

Into the ice cream canister it goes.

Next up, rock salt and crushed ice.

We bought this ancient ice cream machine for $5 at a thrift store years ago. It has its quirks, but it's been an amazing little workhorse.

The result:

This stuff is phenomenally delicious. What a pity I didn't have this recipe during the height of our summer heat!

Patrice, today, instead of turning on the oven warmer, I placed my bread and rolls in their baking containers, to rise for an hour or so on the inside sill of my front window, and thanked God for the warmth of the sunshine. I have found that looking for income means using what I have, from the mountain of stuff I had accumulated 'back then', and being resourceful. And that surviving on a budget can mean delicious home-prepared foods, versus drive-through surprise!

P.S. Have you thought about pulling together your favorite recipes into a booklet to add to your survivalist series?

My dear Patricia,Being well aware that you have a milk cow, I must ask why it is that you are using store-bought products to make your ice cream? For goodness sake, if you and Don ever make it just north of CDA, you simply must stop by for the real thing. We'll send you with a batch of recipes, as well!

My Dad would pick the green tomatoes just before the first frost. Lay them in one layer on a table and apart from one another and check them every morning for signs of decay. He would have ripe tomatoes several weeks after the first frost. He kept them in the basement but any cool place would work.

My husband and I have been playing around with a "no ice cream maker required" single serve ice cream recipe lately.

1cup of milk (or cream, or half of each, or....)dash of sugar (original recipe called for two tablespoons which is on the very sweet side IMO)1tsp of vanilla

Put all of the ingredients into a sandwich sized ziplock and carefully squeeze all the extra air out, set it aside.

In a gallon ziplock put ice (2-3 trays for me, but go with what works) and a couple tablespoons of salt. Plop in the little ziplock of ice cream ingredients. Seal the big ziplock but this time leave in all the extra air.

Start shaking the ziplock! The more you agitate it the firmer your ice cream will be. 5-10 minutes. Though I found if I agitate for 5 minutes and then stuff the whole thing in the freezer for 5 it turns out like a reasonably firm soft serve ice cream.

Before opening the little ziplock carefully rinse it off under cold water, INCLUDING between the lips of the seal. If you neglect to do this you could end up with a mouthfull of salt later, and trust me, thats not fun!